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I'm already activated Cloudflare for my website and to apply that I had to replace my domain default nameservers with Cloudflare nameservers. Now my website has to send emails to the mail servers, but I have a problem with that, especially with the 3 major mail servers.

Gmail and Hotmail receive my website emails in Spam/Junk folder not in inbox, and Yahoo mail doesn't receive messages from my website at all. So in order to solve this issue I was recommended to set a reverse DNS for my website.

Now to do that I had to set a PTR records in my domain settings so reverse DNS lookup of my hosting IP should lead to my domain, but because my domain provider ( name.com ) doesn't offer that, I was told to solve this issue through my hosting provider ( OVH ). But my hosting provider told me I have to solve this issue with Cloudflare support as long as I use Cloudflare servers to protect my website. In Cloudflare support section I read that they don't offer PTR records too and such issue should be solved by the hosting provider, so I'm really stuck in a very narrow place now!

The reverse DNS lookup ( my hosting IP ) leads to my domain, but DNS lookup ( my domain ) leads to Cloudflare IP not to my hosting IP.

If I removed Cloudflare namerservers and bring back the default nameservers in my domain account the problem will be solved, but I need to keep Cloudflare in my website, and in the same time I need my website outcoming emails be accepted by all email servers.

Can you help me to solve this issue.

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  • Off topic as it involved CPanel (as per comment on my answer). As such off topic.
    – TomTom
    Apr 4, 2016 at 10:51
  • 2
    I didn't ask about Cpanel !... I just mentioned that I use Cpanel to manage my website, but I also use SSH and FTP.
    – Zorba
    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:08

2 Answers 2

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The PTR record will need to be set at OVH, however, before being able to do that, you will need to create an A record at CloudFlare for the servers hostname and set that record to not pass through CloudFlare. Say, for example, if your server name is server.domain.com, do the following:

  • In CloudFlare, create an A record for server.domain.com with the IP of your server. Make sure it does not pass through CloudFlare.
  • Ask OVH to setup Reverse DNS for your IP to server.domain.com.
  • Make sure the MTA on your server uses server.domain.com in the HELLO line. Usually it sets it automatically from the hostname.
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  • Actually I need to set a reverse DNS for the domain not for any subdomain. In OVH the user can create a reverse DNS by himself, and I already created or actually changed the current one ( IP hosting to my domain ) and reverse DNS lookup gives now a positive result, but my problem with DNS lookup, the result of my domain gives the IP of Coudflare not OVH, and I think OVH can do nothing about that. A record of domain already created in Cloudflare and pointed by OVH IP
    – Zorba
    Apr 4, 2016 at 10:30
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    That is your problem. Just use a subdomain as server hostname. You cannot resolve it otherwise. Apr 4, 2016 at 10:45
  • Well is there any possibility to test or to know from which domain or subdomain the emails are out coming? ... because I already created the subdomain as ( mail.mydomain.com ) but I still think the messages coming out from domain.com
    – Zorba
    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:13
  • That does not matter. MTAs check the server and not the message. It is enough to do what I said. Adding SPF and DomainKeys will be a big plus too. Apr 4, 2016 at 12:11
  • Well, I already made the first two steps... but about ( MTA ), My server MTA is ( Exim ) but I never found any command that makes such check where I can know the mail server address and see the word Hello, so would you please give me the command line to make that check.
    – Zorba
    Apr 5, 2016 at 20:31
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Consider not using cloudflare for your email server. Simple like that. Website and email on separate IP addresses and voila. I have the PTR records set by my internet provider and email is not routed through cloudflare.

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  • Well if I created a subdomain ( mail.mydomain.com ) and added the A record of it in both my domain and Cloudflare settings ( pointed to OVH IP ) then created a reverse DNS for it in OVH, then the result for both DNS and reverse DNS lookup was compatible ( in the opposite way ) ... How to make sure that subdomain will be the only responsible on my website outcoming emails ( I'm using Cpanel ) ?
    – Zorba
    Apr 4, 2016 at 10:36
  • Not using CPanel and learning administration. Voting to close now - any website panel makes your question not supported here.
    – TomTom
    Apr 4, 2016 at 10:50
  • My post is not specifically about Cpanel ... I need to make sure the emails of my website comes out from a specific subdomain, not from the domain.
    – Zorba
    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:03
  • You asked how to do it in Cpanel. We generally do not support anything involving control panels.
    – TomTom
    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:07
  • How can someone use Cloudflare for emails when it does not offer email hosting or forwarding? May 10, 2016 at 16:50

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